


First Encounter

by AoSfangirl81



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Framework, Framework!Fitz, Jemma tries to get her guy back, Step One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 12:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9898091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AoSfangirl81/pseuds/AoSfangirl81
Summary: He feels a tap on his shoulder. “Care to dance?” he hears someone ask from behind him. He smiles self-assuredly as he turns to politely reject the poor, oblivious girl who thinks he’s available, but stops short, his clever reply dying before it can reach his lips. Everything seems to blur around him as his focus narrows squarely on the woman in front of him. She’s beautiful- dressed in a simple, dark blue dress that hugs her petite frame perfectly. Her hair billows down in waves just past her freckled shoulders. Something clicks inside of him and he feels himself breathe, really breathe, as if for the first time.





	

“Here you go, Mr. Fitz,” the bartender says, handing him a whiskey, neat. He turns from the bar, glass in hand, and surveys the room. Another successful fundraiser, by the looks of it. He was looking forward to seeing the numbers at the end of the night, but was even more excited to meet with the inner city schools that he had chosen to receive these much-needed funds for their STEM programs. He would never tell another soul, especially not his father, but that was the part of his job that he enjoyed the most. 

He feels a tap on his shoulder. “Care to dance?” he hears someone ask from behind him. He smiles self-assuredly as he turns to politely reject the poor, oblivious girl who thinks he’s available, but stops short, his clever reply dying before it can reach his lips. Everything seems to blur around him as his focus narrows squarely on the woman in front of him. She’s beautiful- dressed in a simple, dark blue dress that hugs her petite frame perfectly. Her hair billows down in waves just past her freckled shoulders. Something clicks inside of him and he feels himself breathe, really breathe, as if for the first time. As if every breath he’s taken before this moment was just a gasp, barely taking anything in, and now his lungs are clear, air filling them completely.  _ Magnificent,  _ something whispers inside of him.

He knows he should say something, but is so caught up in the wave of emotions he feels. Emotions he can’t even name, let alone sort through. He feels a sense of what he would call déjà vu, although it’s not quite this exact situation that feels familiar, but instead the complete stranger standing in front of him. His mouth goes dry. “I’m sorry, have we met before?” he asks, his voice cracking. She smiles. “In a way,” she responds cryptically. A cloud of varying emotions that he can’t quite catch pass through her honey brown eyes in a split second. Were depths like that even possible?  
  
She takes his hand and leads him onto the dance floor and he can’t help but follow her, his body working solely on instinct, muscle memory. He puts his drink on the tray of a passing server, barely aware of his movements. Her hand is cold, but still burns his skin. He’s struck by an intense desire to take those hands in his and warm them up. As he wraps his other hand around her waist, a wave of longing hits him so strongly that he forgets to move. _Home_ , the whisper tells him. All he can do is blink at her as she gently starts to sway, putting his own feet in motion.

“No, really,” he breathes, so taken aback by the depths of emotion coursing through him that the walls (the ones his father taught him to never let down) dissolve away. “Where have we met?” She smiles a sad smile at him, eyes glistening and he can’t shake the feeling that he’s gravely disappointed her. “Another life, maybe? Something dictated by the cosmos?” her eyebrow raises expectantly, as if she’s given him a cue and he can’t quite remember his line. He smiles and shakes his head, trying to clear the fog. “Have you been to one of our fundraisers before?” he asks, hopefully, desperately trying to stay afloat in the torrent of emotion surrounding him. She shakes her head. If he could just center himself, find his balance, he’s certain he’d be able to place her. But between the inexplicable pull he feels towards her and a voice in the back of his head, his father’s voice, reminding him that he’s acting incredibly inappropriate, he can’t seem to ground himself.

A shrill beep pulls him out of his reverie and she looks down at her watch. She inhales sharply. “No!” she whispers. She gives him another sad smile, “Time’s almost up.” He takes another breath. “Can we go somewhere and talk more?” He tries to give her his most charming smile. “I can’t let you leave without knowing where we’ve met before.” He knows he’s begging, knows how unbecoming this is, not to mention what it would look like if anyone were watching. But he can’t seem to care. He can’t seem to think of anything else right now but this woman in front of him.  

“Quite a strange feeling, isn’t it? Never wanting to be without someone?” she replies. He feels a pull in his gut and before he can even begin to process what’s happening, a dark-haired woman suddenly appears and gently pulls on his mystery woman’s shoulder, pulling her out of his grasp, his fingers barely still grazing her waist. “Simmons, it’s time. We have to go.  _ Now _ ,” she whispers fiercely.  _ Simmons,  _ he mouths, the word feeling so familiar on his lips. _ How? _

The mystery woman blanches as she looks at him one last time, eyes frantic and desperate. She seems to resolve something in her mind. She closes her eyes, takes a breath, and when she opens them again, he nearly stumbles at the love he sees radiating back at him. He never wants her to go.  _ Why does this feel so familiar? _ She raises a trembling hand to his cheek and quickly leans up to kiss it. His grip against her waist instinctively tightens, trying to hold her there. She lingers for a split second before whispering, “Come back to me.” She pulls back to look him in the eyes once more before she’s pulled away by her friend, both of them sprinting through the crowd and out the nearest exit.

He raises his hand to his cheek and realizes there are tears there.  _ Are they his? _ He gets a flash of something- a memory? No, not a memory. It’s somehow both fainter and stronger than that. Perhaps a dream he once had?  _ A small bed… in a small room…someone sitting next to him... a warm kiss on his cheek and butterflies in his stomach.  _

He takes a breath and the air feels thinner again, like he’s gasping for air once more.

**Author's Note:**

> This story poured out of me and is un-betaed and a bit sloppy, so apologies for any mistakes! I just had to get it out.
> 
> In my head canon, Daisy and Jemma time how long they spend in the Framework so as not to get stuck there for too long.


End file.
